The present invention relates to steam cleaning appliances and in particular to portable steam cleaning appliances.
There are several types of steam cleaning appliances whose features differ according to the kind of cleaning operation they have to perform, both as far as the object to be cleaned is concerned, i.e. a wall rather than a work top, or a floor or window glasses, and as far as sizes are concerned, i.e. from small domestic needs to industrial cleaning.
In general, most of these devices have a carter housing the steam-generating device, and steam supply means connected to said device; it is anyway important to be able to control the jet of steam in the most suitable way according to the needs. Normally, the so-called portable steam cleaning appliances, i.e. mainly suited for domestic use, are provided with a supply control, generally a pushbutton placed on the device body, so as to enable their use with only one hand. Many of these devices, however, are equipped with extensions of the steam supply pipe; this gives the device a greater versatility, but forces the user to use one hand to grasp the extension and the other hand to control the supply pushbutton.
The present invention aims to provide a steam cleaning appliance allowing the user to control the direction of the jet of steam and the steam supply pushbutton using only one hand, also when using extensions of the steam supply pipe.
The object of the present invention, therefore, is a steam cleaning appliance comprising a carter housing a steam-generating device, and supply means for the steam thus generated, said means comprising: a supply mouth of the steam-generating device communicating with a supply nozzle, which can be coupled with steam supply tools, said mouth and said nozzle being connected by means of two pipes, of which a first pipe being provided with shut off means for the steam flow arranged directly downstream from said mouth, and equipped with control means which can be operated manually, and a second pipe being provided with shut off means for the steam flow arranged directly upstream from said nozzle, opening means being provided for said shut off means, which can be operated by coupling said nozzle with a given steam supply tool, said tool being provided with steam supply control means.